Completely agree, but at the same time a lot of people (myself included) criticize Germans for being terrible customers, because they expect things they buy to

Completely agree, but at the same time a lot of people (myself included) criticize Germans for being terrible customers, because they expect things they buy to last a very long time, be repairable and also cheap. I.e. they don't buy often. Contrast that to how Americans are considered to be "good consumers".